Here's a map I started a year or two ago and then SDK broke when I reinstalled Steam onto a separate drive, I got around to fixing it today. This was the first time I rendered it, it is on fullbright, I know. I will add lights, detail, underground portions, more rooms, bug tweaks, etc. It's still not nearly done. I just want to hear some thoughts on it. It's my first real map. I've done an orangemap for DoD:S but that doesn't count.

it looks ok, you got some nice building details.
to bad the video is in fullbright though

Edited:

I made something like this a few years back in a jump rope map for zombie master. Although it looks like you used particles, I used like func_smokevolume with sprites and crap EXTREMELY laggy at times but still cool.

Good God, I just discovered that you can just drag the manifest window out of the sidebar to get rid of it. It doesn't really matter when you have a 1080*1920 monitor, but damn it gives me so much more space on my small laptop.

About 2 hours work, it feels a bit empty but I'm not really sure what type of props I can add that won't look out of place. I'm really happy with how the lighting came out though.
Still looks like utter crap compared to some of the stuff in here :smith:

Something's missing though, I dunno, it just feels a little empty. Any ideas?

Firstly I'd say you need some bright lights, the walls are really brightly colored, and bright colors reflect light the room is far too dark to compliment the colors. Brightening the lighting will also help to make it feel slightly more full.

Secondly you're taking a Mirrors edge style. Try playing the game and searching for similar areas, if I recall correctly there is a sorting office/warehouse very similar to yours.

Good God, I just discovered that you can just drag the manifest window out of the sidebar to get rid of it. It doesn't really matter when you have a 1080*1920 monitor, but damn it gives me so much more space on my small laptop.

Something's missing though, I dunno, it just feels a little empty. Any ideas?

My advice would be to increase the brightness of the ambient light, and yes, put light props inside but turned off - use as much natural light as you can. Also, get them brick textures aligned! Find a stock brick texture and align that first, then replace it with the one you want to use (if you can't see the bricks in Hammer).

Congratulations. I almost failed mine on my eye test. The instructor chose a car where the last letter looked like a P, but was actually an F. Rest went like a charm...thanks to being an automatic test :)